Slam! By Walter Dean Meyers

Slam! by Walter Dean Meyers
Scholastic Paperbacks May 1, 2008

Gregory “Slam” Harris just wants to play basketball and everything seems to be getting in his way.  He has great friends and a stable place in his high school when his family has to move and everything changes.  After the move Slam has to attend Latimer High School.  This separates him from his friends from his old school.  Latimer has much higher academic standards than his old school which comes between him and being able to do what he does best, basketball.  But at this new school even that is not how he wants it to be.  His coach and his new teammates do not like his game.  They say he has a bad attitude and he won’t get game time unless that changes.  As he adjusts to all of the changes of moving to a new school, his past comes back to haunt him.  His best friend from his old school, Ice, appears to be dealing drugs since he now has a lot of cash to spend.  To top it all off, his grandmother is sick.  All of these things threaten to overwhelm Slam as he tries to navigate his life.  Will Slam be able to take his team to the championship?  Can he keep his personal life under control?

Slam is a great book from middle school readers.  The rapid fire prose is engaging and makes the reader wish the book was not a mere 288 pages.  This book is a “slam dunk” from young male readers who are interested in sports.  The book has a fast pace and the adversity that Slam goes through is something anyone can relate to.  While I might not recommend reading this book as a class, I would highly recommend this as a great option for independent reading.

Julie- A Girl's Adventure!

Julie by Jean Craighead George; Harper Trophy Publishers, © 1994

George’s Julie is the sequel to the Newberry Award-Winning Julie of the Wolves. Early in the story, the reader is given a recap of the major events of the previous story; Julie, and Eskimo girl, had left her home to marry at the age of 13, and when the relationship soured, she ran away, got lost in the tundra, and found solace and protection from a pack of wolves. Much to her dismay, her father and a gussak, or white man, killed Amoroq, the leader of the wolf pack and her best canine friend, from an airplane. The story commences with Julie returning to her father, Kapugen, bearing a grudge against him for what he did to Amoroq. Her father had been told that Julie had died, so he is overwhelmed by her return.

            Much has changed since Julie left; Kapugen has taken a white wife, and Julie feels uncomfortable with Ellen referring to Julie as her daughter. Julie hears the wolves howling often, and she seeks to find the pack and communicate with them so that she can convince them to leave the area and stay out of the danger of her father, who kills them because they threaten his oxen farm. As the story progresses, Julie transforms and develops as a character; she overcomes her prejudice against Ellen while they are stranded in a terrible storm, and she reconciles with her father regarding Amoroq. She also begins to find love again, something that she had dismissed following her terrible marriage. When Julie’s beloved wolves kill another ox, she convinces an angry Kapugen to let her go out into the tundra and tell the wolves to leave. If she fails and they kill again, he will have no choice but to hunt them down to save his business…

            The book deals with several very teachable themes. Racial and cultural tensions, domestic tensions, and romance are all present in the story. The reader witnesses Julie soften her hard exterior and open up to other cultures-the struggles that Julie has with her stepmother, who is both new and not of Julie’s culture, can be very relevant to students in similar situations. The domestic tensions in the novel are quite realistic, and the notion behind them transcends cultural lines. Thus students of any race who read Julie could connect with the way that she feels towards her stepmother. Students dealing with racial tension would have even more reason to relate to Julie’s emotions. Finally, Julie finds romance with an older boy, and this is yet another applicable theme to student’s lives that can be very teachable in a classroom.

            The book does not contain any inappropriate thematic material, and it is generally a very easy read. This book may not appeal to all students, so it might be better to use for independent reading; however, a full-class study of this book would also be very possible. It would be beneficial to read Julie of the Wolves first, as the story continues where that book left off. The only potentially challenging aspect of this story for children is the Eskimo culture, as many students in the lower 48 states are unfamiliar with it. George uses many Eskimo words and names that could pose a challenge; she also writes about Arctic features that are possibly very foreign to students, especially if they live in a warm climate. Overall, this book makes for an easy read, and any student who read the first book in the series and enjoyed it will like reading the sequel. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I honestly cannot say enough positive things about this book. It is exquisitely written, and it will make you cry, and laugh, and fall in love with words, and fall in love with the characters, etc, etc. It is a #1 New York Times Bestseller, which basically means that you have automatic sway when you introduce it because if that many people like it, then it has to be good, right? Right. Cliche as that may seem, I see why it is so popular. It is rare that a work of fiction transcends barriers of age and gender--a lot of the time, a book written from a girl's point of view is thought to be "girly" and vice versa for a book told from a male point of view--it is thought of as "masculine". However, The Fault in Our Stars tells a beautifully woven narrative from the point of view of Hazel, a sixteen-year-old girl with terminal cancer. As blunt as that may seem, the book does a fantastic job of insuring the reader that although she is sixteen and a girl, the things that she feels and the thoughts that she thinks could be any of us. We are taken on an emotional roller coaster that is heartbreakingly relatable. There were many points while reading this book that I actually had to stop reading because I couldn't tolerate how much I related to it. Like it was so good that it actually hurt. Books very rarely can do that, so it's a huge deal. You will lose yourself in this story, absolutely lose yourself. I promise.

The thing about this book is that it's really not about cancer so much as it is about the human condition. There is a quote from the book which says, "That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt." And that is a fantastic way to encapsulate the book's purpose--it captures every emotion associated with being human. To live is to feel, and to live thoroughly is to feel things acutely, almost dangerously so. Perhaps this book falls under the "multicultural" category because it deals with a specialized topic--cancer--but honestly, it goes so far beyond that. It paints a startlingly real picture of what it means to be human, and I think that is something far too precious to be ignored.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Little, Brown and Company, 2007.

Sherman Alexie’s award winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian tells the story of a fourteen year old boy named Junior and his experience as an early teen on the Spokane reservation. Born with “water on the brain” and several speech impediments, Junior struggles to find his niche on the reservation. Aspiring to achieve more than the typical Spokane tribesman, Junior decides to uproot and attend the more successful (but predominantly white) school, Rearden High School where he is confronted with the tensions of cultural identity.

With an array of witty cartoons, Alexie humors his reader as he delivers his early childhood experiences through his Native American protagonist. With a combination of illustrations, humor, and a somewhat informal delivery, this text flies by making it an appropriate read for young adults. However, with a number of references to alcohol, abuse, and explicit sexuality this book is best ingested by a mature reader. It may not be the appropriate for any class reading,  but it maintains value on the class bookshelf due to its relation to many of the struggles and hardships of adolescence.

Alexie helps his reader see the bright side of some of the issues that middle and high schoolers deal with on a daily basis and introduces the themes of race, identity, poverty, and education. This book is extremely accessible to students in the developmental stages of early adolescents but due to its mature nature I would suggest that this book be taught in high school classes and possibly offered to middle schoolers if deemed mature enough. It has been banned in some schools, so proceed with caution!

"The Island" by Gary Paulsen

The Island follows the story of Wil Neuton, an adolescent boy who, after his family's abrupt move from a city to a rural setting, discovers an island on which he begins to learn about nature and himself. Wil wakes up early every morning to travel to the island, on which he takes extensive notes on the many different animals he encounters, and then begins to make connections between the animals and his own life. Along with discovering the island, Wil meets a girl named Susan who he is shy of at first. Over time, however, Wil warms up to Susan and shows her the journal entries and paintings which he has made on the island.

The peace that Wil finds on the island is contrasted by the chaotic world back in town. Wil's parents, especially his father, embarrass Wil by their rash actions, and fail to understand what Wil sees in nature. Life outside of the island is also marked by the presence of Ray Bunner, a bully who threatens to beat up Wil because he is an out-of-towner. Eventually the peace that Wil finds on the island is disrupted when Ray Bunner discovers what he has been up to and takes a boat to meet him on the island. In the book's climax, Wil uses his newfound wisdom and perspective on life to help him merge the peace he found on the island with the chaos of everyday life.

The Island could be a very useful tool for teaching middle school students because of the over-arching themes it explores. These themes include finding one's identity, coping with change, dealing with romantic interests, dealing with bullies, and finding peace in a chaotic situation, and can all easily be understood by middle school aged students. The Island is written in an interesting, yet not very difficult prose. The snippets of journal entries and pictures in the book also help to create an exciting reading experience.

"Edith Jackson" by Rosa Guy

Edith Jackson by Rosa Guy, published in 1980, is about Edith Jackson, a 17 year old girl who moves between foster homes while trying to keep her family together. Edith, the main character, takes it upon herself to take care of her sisters and maintain some sort of stability in their lives. However, Edith finds her life to be anything but stable. The book’s characters experience issues surrounding orphans, abortion, accidental death, sexual assault, and death. The themes in the book are quite heavy and may be difficult for students to deal with. Some of the most difficult parts of the novel include Edith identifying her sister Bessie’s body after being in a car accident, and the ending of the novel where Edith makes the decision to have an abortion.  I think another one of the most challenging issue in the novel to work through is the explicit sexual assault that takes place between the characters and their care-givers. In my opinion, it might be too much for a student in middle school to understand. As a whole, I also felt the book did not really take time to dig deeper into the emotions or consequences associated with these heavy topics other than the incidents themselves. One theme that I thought might be interesting to explore with students, though, was the author’s realistic depiction of the failure of American institutions like churches, orphanages, and schools. Although this book highlights these themes very well, there might be another novel out there that explores institution failures in a less salacious context.  As a whole, I feel that this book might be good for an independent study, however, to teach to an entire class might run into serious issues with not only students’ comfort levels, but with parents or administrators. The themes, although potentially applicable to life, are a bit provocative to encourage middle school students to read about and experience. This novel could potentially work in a high school setting where students are more mature and have more background knowledge about the themes presented. 

Learning to Swim, by Ann Turner

   

Learning to Swim, by Ann Turner

This collection of free verse captures the tragic summer of young Ann Turner at a summer home.  During this stream of dark memories, Ann suffocates under the pressure of constant sexual abuse by an older neighbor boy, while at the same time trying to comprehend her adolescence and development.  Because of its first person perspective, Turner's horrific story becomes more real with each stanza.

This text is filled with graphic sexual abuse and violent references, so this would make the text somewhat difficult and uncomfortable to read as an entire class.  Reading this aloud in class would be a disaster, especially with the personal experiences of students in the classroom taken into consideration.  Although I found this book to be absolutely amazing and inspiring to all of those who not only have dealt with sexual abuse, but also to anyone who has ever carried a burden.  This book would be great for smaller lit. circles to read alone and discuss, but Turner's courageous confession would serve problematic and contradicting to be on a required reading list.

Learning to Swim is a quick read that should take a student no longer than an hour to finish and gather his/her overall understanding of the text, so the actual reading period of the book can be placed in a day length time period, but there are many options for branching off of the powerful ideas and imagery present in these poems (i.e. pink swimming ring, etc.) that can be grasped by students in a secondary level classroom. 

Am I Blue? Coming Out of the Silence, Short Stories by Multiple Authors

Am I Blue? Coming Out of the Silence, Multiple Authors, Harper Collins Children's Books, 1994

Am I Blue? Coming Out of the Silence is a collection of short stories about growing up gay or lesbian or with gay or lesbian parents or friends.  The characters in the stories are often young people struggling to understand their own identities through their sexuality.  The stories are short (less that fifteen pages each), very well-written, and easy for young readers to understand.

The stories in the book deal with the topic of homosexuality, but they do so in many different ways.  Some of the stories deal with people who know they are gay and are dealing with family members or friends who don't understand or support them.  Other stories deal with adolescents who are still trying to figure out who they are and what their sexuality might be. 

I would definitely use this book in a middle school classroom.  The stories do a great job of talking about homosexuality from the perspective of young people who are still struggling to find their identity.  The stories and the characters are very relatable to all young people, regardless of sexuality.  I would probably read a few of the stories together as a class along with other short stories or poems about social issues. I would then have the book on hand for individual reading by anyone who was interested.  This book was definitely one of the best collections of short stories I have ever read and it dealt with issues that are extremely relevant in society today.

Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Kira Kira, Cynthia Kadohata, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004

Kira Kira tells the story of a Japanese family in the 1950s. Not only are they struggling financially, they feel out of place in their all white world. The story focuses on Katie and Lynn, the two daughters in the family. Lynn, the older sister, tries to show Katie the good in the world and how to live thinking about tomorrow. Eventually, Lynn becomes deathly ill and Katie has to listen to her sister's advice and really grown from it. 

This book explores not only the idea of prejudice, as well as the role of family in life. There are only a few Japanese families in town, so Katie and Lynn have a hard time making friends and feeling a part of school. This idea of how Japanese were treated during this time is easily something that could be explored in a classroom. Yet, a majority of the text explores the relationship between the two sisters and what parents give up for their children. 

This would definitely be a text that could be used for a classroom. It is an interesting read that wouldn't be a very difficult text for them. I would recommend it for a 6th grade classroom. The only problem I could foresee is it might not appeal to male readers, as the majority of the characters in the text are female and spends time about how sisters interact. 

The Circuit by: Francisco Jiménez

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

                This short autobiographical novel tells the story of a 4-year-old Francisco and his family.  In 1947 they illegally cross the Mexican border into the United States to find work and to build a better life.  A series of short stories follows this family (in a span of about 10 years) as they travel between different locations finding work on different farms depending on the season.  Francisco struggles to learn English when he is actually in school and to prove to his father that he can work alongside him to provide for the family.

                I enjoyed the book and thought it was interesting.  There are several good qualities about this book.  One, it gives the perspective of what it’s like to live as a poor immigrant and migrant.  This can open up students’ eyes to the different socio-economic backgrounds of their classmates.  Two, there is Spanish scattered throughout the book but it does not hinder comprehension.  This is a great way to ask Latino/a students to help with translation and it’s always cool to learn a few words in a new language.  Three, given that it is so short it might lend itself well to a short interdisciplinary unit.  Social Studies can learn about Mexican events mentioned (ie: Mexican Revolution) or could talk about what it was like to be immigrants in the 1940s and now.  There is a lot of discussion about hourly wages and making enough money to live.  The concept of balancing a modest budget or simpler “how much do you make a day if you make this in an hour” kind of questions could be used.  Finally, perhaps students could write short stories from their own lives.

                Overall, I would recommend the book. It’s short and eye opening.  It can be used in the classroom or as individual reading.

"Boy Meets Boy" by David Levithan

Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan, Random House, 2003.

Boy Meets Boy is narrated by Paul, a sophomore in high school who falls in love with Noah, the new kid in town.  The story is centered around Paul's relationships with his friends and more-than-friends, as he tries to navigate the difficulties of high school relationships.  The book takes place in a small town in New Jersey, where the gay community is loud and proud.  Almost all of the main characters are LGBT high schoolers.  As Paul deals with a gay best friend whose parents are ultra-religious, another best friend who is slipping away from him, and an ex-boyfriend struggling with his attractions, Paul must figure out how to prove his love for Noah while discovering things about friendships, new and old.

The book overall seemed to me to be a typical romantic teen comedy.  It deals with themes of love, friendship, and relationships which every adolescent is familiar with.  In this way, it is an attractive book for middle school because these themes are relevant in adolescents' lives.  Of course, the pervading issue is the LGBT setting, which might be tricky to teach to middle schoolers.  There is no inappropriate language or content in the book, but I would recommend it only for seventh or eighth graders and up.

The interesting thing about the book is the fact that almost all of the characters are confident in their sexuality, especially the narrator, Paul, who came out in third grade.  The book's setting might be unfamiliar to many readers (including me) who might not have experienced life in a community where LGBT young people are so confident and included.  This could be an interesting point of discussion.  I would suggest this book more for small reading groups for middle schoolers who can maturely read LGBT literature.

"Ties that Bind, Ties that Break" by Lensey Namioka

Ties that Bind, Ties that Break, Lensey Namioka, Laurel-Leaf Books, 1999.

 

Lensey Namioka’s novel, Ties that Bind, Ties that Break, opens with a 19-year-old girl, Ailin, working in America and flashes back to her upbringing in China circa the 1900s. Ailin grows up during a time when marriages were arranged young and bound feet were the norm for women. However, her childhood was also a time of revolution as the end of the Chinese Dynasty results in the creation of the Republic of China. At only five years old, Ailin, backed by her father, bravely resists tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, which results in the breaking of her engagement and negative prospects for the future. Years later, faced with the options of becoming a farmer’s wife, a nun, or a concubine, Ailin makes her own path that eventually lands her in America.

This novel can definitely be taught at the middle school level. It’s a story about identity, tradition, standing up for what you believe, and fighting for a better life. Ailin’s ability to defy the dim expectations of her life provides a positive message to students everywhere: it is possible to overcome life’s obstacles. There is a lot of Chinese culture and history scattered throughout the novel, which can be a topic of research for students. The treatment and expectations of women throughout history and various countries could also be interesting to study along with this novel. Though feet binding is nonexistent today, there are still many other areas where women are subjected to limiting traditional practices.

I enjoyed reading this novel. It was a very quick read and I learned a lot about the Chinese culture. The length of the novel (154 pages) and the fairly simple language make the novel very manageable for children at the middle school level. 

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine, Kashmira Sheth, Hyperion Books, 2006

 

Seema, a young girl living in India, enjoys her life, her family and her friends.  However, when she discovers that her father has received a job in America, she realizes that her life is going to change forever.  Her family is uprooted from their Indian home in order to move to Iowa City, and she learns that she will face many trials as an immigrant in an American middle school.  Not only do language barriers make it difficult for her to communicate, but her cultural differences also separate her from fitting in with other students at school.  This book follows Seema’s struggles moving from India to the United States and the development of her identity as an adolescent and as an Indian-American. 

This book covered many themes that could be teachable in a middle school context.  The cultural differences between Seema’s life in India and America cause her a great deal of hardship, and this could easily be discussed in a diverse classroom where students in the class have moved.  A large part of the story line discusses Seema’s friendship with a girl from a much lower social class than her, and this would allow a teacher to discuss cultural implications of social class differences and how understanding can bridge the gap between the classes.  Seema also faces a bully at school that makes it difficult for her to enjoy her classes, which is another topic that can be discussed with students.  The book is riddled with cultural knowledge about Indian culture, and even has a glossary of terms in the back that explains the cultural terms used in the book.  I think this story contains many teachable themes for a middle school setting.

I think that this book would be very teachable in a middle school setting.  However, the book was not a very difficult read so it would me more appropriate for younger students in the middle school; it would me more appropriate for students in the sixth grade rather than the eighth.  This book was an appropriate length for either classroom or individual reading and was a relatively quick read.  Overall, I enjoyed this book and think that it would be great for a younger audience.

Walter Dean Myers 145th Street Short Stories

Walter Dean Myers, 145^th Street Short Stories, 2000

Walter Dean Myers’ 145^th Street Short Stories is a collection of short stories dealing with the lives of the characters that inhabit a block in a poor but determined neighborhood.  The stories in this book are an engaging mix that range from eclectic, including the tale of the man who arranged and experienced his funeral while still alive and the girl who dreamed of those who were about to die, to heartwarming and uplifting tales of a police officer’s family spending Christmas Day with an old, lonely woman and a young girl who refuses to abandon her boyfriend after his horrible accident. 

The short stories in this collection deal with the themes of friendship, loyalty, and love, in a romantic, familial, and neighborly sense.  145^th street is a place that is no stranger to violence and death, but in the lives of many of the characters, hope and kindness towards one another prevail in the end.  The fear of gangs is ever present for the characters, especially the school-age ones, but they never give up on trying to live well in a tough neighborhood.  The novel was a fairly easy read that most middle school age students could manage, but there is one scene involving drug use that might be a bit mature for middle school students.  This book would work either as a book students read on their own or as a book for the whole class.  This book would work well if a teacher wanted to read aloud a bit to students every day.  It is organized into short stories, so it would make sense to introduce a new one each day, yet many of the characters appear in more than one story, giving the book as a whole a more unified feel.  This approach allows for readers to encounter a multitude of different points of view on the same place and characters.  Each story allows readers to see 145^th street in a different, deeper light, giving readers a more well-rounded picture of the neighborhood and its inhabitants. 

Stella on the Edge of Popularity by Lauren Lee

This book was really terrible. I wish I had picked something else to read and I would never, no matter how angry at my students I may get, assign this book to them to read. No teacher would be that cruel. Honestly, the writing in this book is embarrassing, obnoxious, and nauseating.

Written by Lauren Lee, the novel follows the main protagonist, Stella, as she navigates middle school. Bullied by the stereotypical "mean girl" Eileen, Stella endures racist comments and much taunting for her Korean heritage. The thing is, the book is so poorly written that I didn't even care that that was happening. The book is so cheesy and juvenile that it just doesn't seem to matter what happens to Stella or what she must tolerate. When the writing is poor, the content of the novel hardly even matters.

Predictable and trite, Stella on the Edge of Popularity is really just not worth anyone's time. It doesn't make me want to learn more about Korean customs, nor does it make me want to do anything other than find whoever gave this author the green light to publish her book and tell them they are terrible at their job. 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Puffin (October 1, 1991)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor is one of those rare novels that affectively addresses tough issues in an accessible manner for young readers.  Set in rural Depression era Mississippi, this Newberry Award winning novel paints a painfully accurate picture of what society was like for African Americans in the south at that time.

The story revolves around the narrator Cassie Logan, a young idealistic African American girl, and her family’s struggle to survive in the hostile south without compromising their freedom.  When the owners of the local store begin burning African Americans, the Logan family organizes a boycott of the store in hopes that the persecution will end.  This act of civil disobedience causes all kinds of trouble for the Logan’s and their friends.  Eventually the various conflicts are temporarily resolved in a tension filled confrontation at the end of the novel.

Some of the content in the novel could be offensive to some readers.  The book does contain some racial slurs and discusses terrible acts of violence towards African Americans.  However the “offensive language” is historically accurate and used to show the abuse African Americans received at the time.  If anything the violence in the book is toned down for young readers.  However, the violence in the book is very affective in conveying the situation African Americans during that time were in.

This coming of age story is an excellent book for middle school readers because it is written from the perspective of a young person not far from their age.  Cassie’s naivety when it comes to matters of racism probably mirrors those of middle school readers to a certain extent.  Showing racial conflict from this youthful perspective clearly shows the institutional and individual racism of that time.  It also gives context for racism present today.